The Belgian native marked the occasion by clocking the fastest ever lap on the Friday of the Bathurst 12 Hour program – an impressive 2:03.1368.

He averaged 182km/hr for that lap of the 6.213 kilometre circuit in the fourth practice session behind the wheel of the Audi Sport Customer Racing L8 RMS.

His team-mates Garth Tander and Kelvin van der Linde were delighted, the latter tweeting: “Very happy with the way things have gone so far.”

The second fastest around the track was Marco Wittman in the the BMW Team Schnitzer M6, who clocked a 2:03.3886.

He jumped behind the wheel after team-mate Chaz Mostert had started the final practice session and sat on top of the time sheets for a period with a 2:03.734

It was a solid day for the outfit as its third driver, Brazilian Augusto Farfus, topped the second and third practice sessions in the #43 BMW.

Farfus posted the quickest lap in practice two with a 2:03.695 effort, a mark he lowered to 2:03.429 on the eighth lap in practice three.

“The car is doing a fantastic job, and it’s Augusto’s first time here and he was fantastic,” Mostert said.

“The track is getting better and better, the same as last year. Obviously the temperature is down this year which is fantastic, then we are not running the medium tyre this year, so hopefully it balances out.

“It’s fantastic to debut for Schnitzer Motorsport, it’s incredible to think how far my career has come and to get the opportunity to do this.”

That final practice session was cut short after an incident at The Chase involving the #8 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes and the #15 Baigent Motorsport BMW M4 GT4.

At that stage there was 14 minutes remaining in the session, which was red flagged. Soon after race control opted not to restart the session.

Another driver who cut his first racing lap at the Mount on Friday was third-generation racer Matt Brabham, the grandson of three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jack Brabham and son of former Le Mans victor Geoff Brabham.

He is part of the Boat Works BMW M4 Class C driver line-up which also includes Aaron Seton and former Bathurst 12 Hour and Great Race winner Tony Longhurst.

“Nerves are good so far, I’m trying to slowly adapt and get into it really because I haven’t been here before and this is the first time I’ve drove the car as well,” Brabham said.

“It’s a steep learning curve. It’s funny because I’ve raced this place on simulators and watched it on TV hundreds of times, I grew up watching the race. It’s weird because I knew the track and got to walk around it, but nothing compares to driving it in real life. It’s so much steeper than what you think.

“The car has been really good to drive and really smooth, so it has been good for me to learn the corners and the track. I’ve been focusing more on the lines to take.”

Qualifying for the Bathurst 12 Hour will take place from 11.05am Saturday with the top 10 shootout set for 4.15pm